by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
The Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Center for Teaching Excellence’s Academic Symposium series continues March 7 with a look into the growing trend of medical marijuana.
“Marijuana: From Reefer Madness to Medical Acceptance” is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in Upper Jewell on the KCKCC main campus, 7250 State Ave.
The symposium, which is presented by the KCKCC Center for Teaching Excellence, will be led by Linda Warner, LCPC, director of counseling and advocacy at KCKCC and Jackson Warner, Pharm.D. It is free and open to the public.
Warner said she became interested in medical marijuana because of health concerns of her aging parents. She said her mother was seeking information about CBD oil to treat fibromyalgia when the medication she was taking produced intolerable side effects. In addition, her father has Parkinson’s disease and has profound tremors in his hands.
“My siblings suggested that marijuana use could reduce his tremors. This was the beginning of my research into the medicinal properties of cannabis,” Warner said. “My co-presenter at this symposium is my youngest son, Jackson Warner. He is a licensed pharmacist in Kansas and Missouri. I asked Jack a lot of questions about what cannabis products could do to help my parents and any potential harm it could cause. This has led us both to study the latest practices of the clinical use of cannabis as well as evaluate the science behind marijuana research.”
There are four objectives for those who attend the symposium:
• To understand the history of cannabis as a medication and how it came to be classified by the federal government as a Schedule 1 drug, which puts it in the same category as heroin
• Understand the processes around research and development of marijuana for medical use
• To know how medical professionals are treating patients with various types of cannabis products and how that would impact clinical practice in Kansas with the enactment of the proposed HB 2163 legislation
• Assess the pros and cons of the movement from medical marijuana to legal recreational use as has been done in other states.
“Attending this event will help you to ask informed questions if you are considering treatment of an ailment with a cannabis product,” Warner said. “It will give you information to evaluate market place claims for cannabis products, help healthcare professionals know about emerging medical treatments using cannabis and what the proposed state law in Kansas will change. It will allow you to examine data from states that transitioned from medical use to recreational use of legalized marijuana to assess its social impact.”
For more information about this academic symposium or others, contact KCKCC’s Center for Teaching Excellence at 913-288-7121.